Try Low Stress Training (LST). Use a fat, soft piece of string or yarn. Tie a loose loop around the main stem, near the top, and tie the other end to something heavy on the floor, so the plant bends over, away from the light. Your plant looks like it’s starting to bud, so you don’t want to cut it.
Next grow, keep the plant trimmed lower during the vegetative stage to prevent this from happening.
Looking good!
I agree. Flatten out the canopy.
I used the hand test. I lower the light until it feels warm on the back of my hand. Then I raise it a couple of inches.
Another trick is to cock the light. Doing so gets deeper penetration. Either switch the tilt every few days or if you can still rotate your pot, do that.
I’m looking into making a lazy Suzy that would rotate my plants once or twice a day. Basically doing what the sun does throughout the day.
@SlingShot what an interesting idea!!! Position one light at 7am angle, another at noon and another at 5pm. Use timers to keep the “sun” moving across the sky. That would make for a really cool time lapse video.
The stem is already woody
If you go a little at a time you can even it out. Just keep two fingers lightly on the joint of the branch you’re lst ing and if you feel it pop… thats your limit… it will heal fine but try to stop just before if you can. Just to avoid stunting.
How do I do that if the plant like 3 feet tall lol
You might have a dimmer on the light
Get a ladder? Lol what do you mean? Are you worried about technique or space or?? Just go slow and do as much as it will give you each day… it will flatten out. Wire works well as a tie down also.
I figured it out guys lol I’m sitting here wondering how to bring the height down I have two trellis nets duhhh. So I just used one of my nets and threw it on top wived the tallest branches in and perfectooo. I’ll show pictures later
This is the struggle when growing autos indoors. They’re going to mature fast, and everything we do is in hopes of supporting production, often chasing rather than directing them.
My best advice is study LST technique videos. Using fabric pots, I tie mine with pipe cleaners shaped into loose canes looped over branches, so nothing gets strangled, the other end threaded through holes poked in the bag perimeter with an ice pick. Gently hold the top down until the secondaries start to pop. The plant sent the hormones to the “top” because you fooled it into diverting them. Now you’ve got more tops, less total height.
I’m sorry for coming in late in this discussion but I also have the same thing going on and I never looked at it as stretching because the rest of the plant is just out normal it’s just the tops and mine was at the light so just wondering what will this cause?
I had light stretch when I first started using my Mars 3000 LEDs. The problem was that I was using the instructions with the light. They had me hold the light 30-34 inches above the canopy. LOL
Another grower saw my picture and straightened me out.
I lowered it to 12" over.
I also did a lot of LST since I now had 4 straggly plants. Worked out alright. Got about an ounce per plant yield and the product was good.
How much light should I have in my 4 x 4
@arthurslater Welcome to the forum!
If you have a 4’ x 4’ tent and quality is more important than cost then probably a LED with at least 400-600 W would be the starting point. However you would want to look at the specs of any light you’re considering and it should have a chart or a diagram that will explain how much intensity it puts out at a certain footprint. Obviously this footprint the light intensity would be higher in the middle and trail off on the edges. So whatever those numbers are along the edges he would want them to be I would say at least 700–800 PPFD. That would likely put you over 1000 in the middle But make sure that chart is showing you at least a 4‘ x 4‘ footprint. That should fulfill the light requirements for flowering. Also the light information should give you optimal distances from the canopy to the light at different stages of growth.
I am sure others have really useful input as well. And just my short time with this forum I’ve learned a lot and I’ve been kind of taking notes on specific things and this is what I have in my notes based on some previous topics and discussions about how much light is needed.
Happy Grows
In terms of what lights will provide enough light In a 4x4 I would go 450-500 min… There are a ton of lights in this category and they are all basically the same lights.
Personally I would go with bar style lights in a 4x4 to get the most even light spread.
Personally I use the spider farmer se 5000s and that or equivalent would be perfect for a 4x4.
In terms of light intensity…
Veg about 500 par in the middle top of canopy. For flower 1000-1200 in middle top of canopy. For my light distance with my light that is about 70% of max in veg and about 85-90% through flower stacking and then backed down to about 800 ppfd though finishing/ripening.
I would run lights high in veg and give the stretchers a height boost to increase intensity for them. Typically if your growing multiple plants/strains they are not all going to like the light level. So lighting is not an exact science. Just watch your plants and make adjustments as needed. Some plants in veg could take 900 ppfd while another might only take half that before showing light stress and the whole time you’re chasing your tail thinking it’s nutes.